Via Emilia on Hoxton Square is all about the pasta

Summing it all up: If you want the best egg pasta in Italy, so they say, you have to go to the Emilia Romagna region where it was created. But if you can’t *quite* justify getting on a plane yet then Hoxton Square’s new Italian Via Emilia looks like the next best thing, and in traditional Italian style, they’re keeping it ultra simple with eight pastas, one pudding and a wine list that’s short but sweet.

The low-down

With all the, ahem, merriment of the festive season, a new Hoxton Square restaurant snuck in under our radar. It’s called Via Emilia, after the region where egg pasta hails from, which should give you an idea of the kind of food on offer.

The pastas, of which there’ll be eight for you to try, are each inspired by their city of origin. So there’ll be Ragu from Bologna, Tagliolini from Parma and Pisarei from Piacenza. They’ll all be made by hand too, without the use of a pasta machine for an extra authentic result, and priced at an incredibly reasonable £5.50-£11.

We’re also delighted to hear about their speciality; the highly winter-friendly dish of Gnocco Fritto, which are essentially fried little bready rectangles. The restaurant will be serving those up with creamy Squacquerone cheese, before encouraging you to eat the lot by hand. Sounds good to us.

There’ll be a small selection of starters and sharer plates mainly revolving around charcuterie and cheeses, and a Tiramisu as your sole dessert option, but the focus here will be firmly on the pasta.

The wine list is a similarly all-Italian affair, and includes the lesser seen sparkling red wine, Lambrusco.

Via Emilia is the sister restaurant of Fitzrovia’s In Parma, owned by Christian Pero, and forms part of his Food Roots project.